As I write this, I am finishing up my annual Advent & Christmas trip around boundaries of the parish. Like many priests and deacons in all kinds of places, I have been going around bringing communion to the home-bound members of the parish. The Sunday after Christmas, lay people will fan out across this same parish taking with them the poinsettias that at the moment adorn our chancel.
This Christmas season finds us a rather bewildered human race. We have neither peace within nor peace without. Everywhere paralyzing fears harrow people by day and haunt them by night. Our world is sick with war; everywhere we turn we see its ominous possibilities.
It was Christmas Eve and they kept coming, a steady flow, mostly young and obviously many were from far away places. There was no room for me, well, not in the inn, but rather, no room in the Collegiate Church of St Peter, Westminster, known lovingly as Westminster Abbey. They were standing everywhere. It was a stupendous vision of humanity -incarnation!
In his Christmas sermon at Canterbury Cathedral, the Archbishop of Canterbury says that one of the lessons of the coming of Christ is that people shouldn’t waste time waiting for larger-than-life heroes to bring comprehensive and total solutions to the ills of the world.
Mary and Joseph were heading for the stage, along with a beatific baby Jesus. Crowding in were shepherds, their flocks, wise men, a gaggle of giggling angels — and a traffic report.
Maker of the sun, he himself is made under the sun. Disposing all Ages in the bosom of the Father, he consecrates this unique day in the womb of his mother: in Him he abides, from her he goes forth. Creator of heaven and earth, he was born on earth under heaven. Wisdom too deep for utterance, wise now a baby asleep; filling all the world, he lies in his crib; ruler of the stars, he suckles his mother’s breast.
And thanks to the Rev. Peter Pearson for our Christmas icon. Peter is priest in charge at Saint Philip’s Church in New Hope, Pa. He is a former Benedictine monk, an icon painter (and our editor in chief’s former roommate when they worked at Camp Saint Andrew in Tunkhannock, Pa.)
…on the Diocese of Washington’s online Advent calendar. Pay a visit, and consider a year-end gift to the Bokamoso Youth program.
Two Christmas messages, one from the Archbishop of Canterbury, the other from The Most Rev’d Martín Barahona, Bishop of the Episcopal Anglican Church of El
We have a litany of challenges that are so destructive and devastating: Cholera, hunger, HIV/AIDs, lack of health care, homelessness, unemployment, poverty, corruption, kidnappings, callousness, harassment, you name it that is a tall order indeed. All these challenges rob us of an opportunity to have a meaningful and purposeful life. –